Bill Kane's Law: Keep Busy, Keep Trying, Stay Interested

"A lot of parents shelter handicapped kids," says William Kane, the genial operator of the Lehigh County Courthouse canteen for the past 12-1/2 years. "That's what holds them back.

"I rode a bike, climbed mountains, built buggies. She left me do it," he says of his mother.

Kane lost his eyesight because of oxygen problems in the incubator he was placed in after his premature birth.

He remembers his mother telling him that she wasn't going to treat him differently than his sighted brothers and sister.

"She taught me to cook when I was 6," the Allentown resident recalls. Today, he does his own cooking, cleaning and laundry.

"I find a way to do it. To me, blindness is a nuisance," says Kane, a native of Pottsville, Schuylkill County.

Pennsylvania's Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services provided Kane and others in similar circumstances with an education, vocational training, and employment placement. The state licenses the concession and furnishes equipment in return for which the operator pays the state 15 percent of the net profit. The money goes into a fund to set up other concessions.

Kane, a food vendor for 20 years, handles every phase of the operation -- "whatever needs to be done," he says. He plans menus, hires employees, cooks, cleans up, and supervises one part-time and three full-time employees.

The concessionaire adds up customers' bills in his head and does his accounting using a computer adapted by Robert Hollenbach of Tamaqua Compu-Systems Inc.

The computer utilizes a speech synthesizer and links up with a printer that has Braille capabilities. With it, Kane can write and print his own checks, print out a year-end total and keep account of his daily, weekly and monthly sales.

Kane says about two dozen other blind snack bar vendors use the specially adapted computers.

His workday begins at 4:30 a.m. or earlier, and continues until 4 p.m. Kane starts the meats, chops celery and onion, and peels and chops hard-cooked eggs for the salads. He uses no special gadgets. When he browns hamburger, he can sense when the meat is done as he stirs it.

It's a long workday, but Kane finds time for several after-hours activities. He plays guitar and keyboard for his own enjoyment, goes for an occasional horseback ride, and walks the length of the city, getting about with the aid of a cane.

A past president of the Allentown Blind Bowlers, Kane enjoyed bowling and cross-country and downhill skiing until injuring his back in a car accident several years ago. Blind persons ski, he explains, with the assistance of a guide behind them who warns them about obstacles in their path.

In the canteen, he serves 400-600 people a day; when criminal court is in session, the number rises to anywhere from 800 to 1,000. Basically a fast-food operation, the canteen offers soups, sandwiches, desserts, snacks, beverages, and occasionally, platters.

"From chef's salad to ice cream cones," Kane says.

All are homemade.

"To promote good business and keep people coming back, you should make a lot of homemade dishes," Kane says.

Kathy Eslinger, who works in juvenile probation, is a canteen regular.

Bill knows who you are as you're approaching, she says. "He'll say `hey sweetie, how are you?'

"He knows what I'm getting. I was a real junk food person. Now I just eat healthy foods," says Eslinger, who credits Kane with persuading her to make the switch.

Eslinger visits the cafeteria before work, mid-morning, mid-afternoon and at lunch. "He's a very special person," she says.

Another customer, Franklin Baer, Lehigh County tax claim director, thinks Kane and his staff do "a capable job." The service, he says, is "always very good."

Kane says he uses the "best products to keep people happy," but doesn't take all the credit for his successful operation. "I give most of it to the hired employees who work with me."

Barbara Kroll, the canteen's assistant manager, says Kane is a good employer. "He's trusting and good-natured; he's always pleasant. If I was blind, I couldn't do what he does.

"He's not afraid to travel. He goes to Arizona and California."

Kane is president of the Lehigh Valley Federation of the Blind which promotes education and humanitarian rights for the blind. The concession operator says that the local chapter, an affiliate of the National Federation of the Blind, has defended blind persons who were denied apartments or not permitted in restaurants with their guide dogs.

He served as a member of the board of directors for the Lehigh County Association for the Blind.

Kane says he's happy to be gainfully employed and independent, but believes that the state should offer more career choices to the blind. He remembers being able to select from teaching, computer programming or snack bar operator. "I wanted to be an auto mechanic,' he says wistfully.

On a positive note, he says he's satisfied with his occupation even though it was not his first choice.

Jim Dourand, director of business enterprises for the Bureau of Blindness and Visual Services, says occupational choices are based on abilities to which the individual is best suited. He says some training is contracted outside the agency.